tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993Wed, 16 Aug 2017 16:07:59 +0000reviewin my mailboxbook haulwaiting on wednesdaydiscussionsweekly roundupdiscussionblog tourhistorica saturdaynew adultinterviewnot really a reviewguest blogmonsterbook to moviebeabehind the booksgiveawayread a thonthe romance reviewchoose your own contentdnftop ten tuesdayMichael Baronalaarc augustbook mixbook-a-daybookishdear meeducationfallintobelzharfragment fridaymovie mondaymovie reviewnew bloggersreviwwishlist wednesdaywritingBloggers Heart Bookshttp://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)Blogger1634125bloggersheartBookshttps://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-1903171617633175608Fri, 04 Aug 2017 01:00:00 +00002017-08-04T02:23:20.134+01:00When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475687488l/28458598.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475687488l/28458598.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">When Dimple Met Rishi</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Sandhya Menon</b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="background-color: #ffe599;"><b>Summary: </b>Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right? <br /><br />Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. <br /><br />The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not? </div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">I went into this book expecting to love it. It sounded so good and there was so many glowing reviews, I thought there was no way I wouldn't love it. And it did get there in the end, but for the first two thirds of the book I really struggled to get through it.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But anyway, let's start with the positives: the characters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rishi? He was a little ball of adorable. I love seeing actual nice guy characters rather than "Nice Guys" (you know the ones...where they think they're good guys and we're supposed to think they're good guys but they're actually really not).<br /><br />And Dimple? I loved her. I loved that she was strong and complex and realistic, I loved that she was a bit of a steel coated marshmallow at first (reminds me of my best friend in that way). I've seen a lot of people criticise her character for basically being a teenager, for being flawed and realistic, but those reasons many people had for not liking Dimple were a big part of the reason I did like her. I loved her and Rishi together, they were so cute and they balanced each other out.<br /><br />The book also managed to make me laugh out loud quite a few times (the dancing scene was golden -- if I rated the book purely on that scene it'd be 5+ stars), which doesn't happen very often when I'm reading and I loved that Sandhya managed to make me laugh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And I really loved that they were both Indian-American. There is countless YA romcoms featuring white protagonists but there's barely any Indian-American representation. That racial and cultural diversity matters, it is so important. It matters that Indian-American teens have books like this they can read and relate to because the characters reflect them positively and I hope to see more of them on the shelves soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reasons I struggled so much with the first chunk of the book: a pet peeve of mine, and the plot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pet peeve? I really don't like stories, particularly romance based stories, with alternating POV's and unfortunately this book was not one of the rare exceptions (I wasn't a fan of the way it's done in this, with the POV switches often happening mid-scene, sometimes multiple times in one scene). So that one wasn't an issue with the book, it was just down to personal preference.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the plot, it just wasn't as strong as I expected it to be. The pacing felt a bit off, at times it bored me quite a bit. It took a long time to hook me. But again, this is down to personal preference. I'm okay with a romcom not having much to the plot beyond the romance, but the romance has to keep me interested for that to happen and romances that are primarily cute don't really hold my interest well, especially when the couple gets to that point really quickly.<br /><br />I think my expectations for the coding aspect were a bit too high too, I wanted more from that than it delivered. I was happy about seeing a female character into coding and tech stuff but it fell a little flat there, it was very tell instead of show (Rishi's passion for art was shown much better).<br /><br />In the last quarter of the book, I found the parts that started to draw me in the most were the scenes that weren't <i>just </i>focusing on the romance...like when Dimple would have chats with Celia or when they talked about their families, or scenes with Rishi and his brother. That was when the book really started to win me over (basically everything from the dance scene onward).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, I'd rate the book 4 stars out of 5. It didn't quite wow me to the same extent as it did other people, but I loved it in the end, it was absolutely adorable and such an important read. I definitely look forward to seeing what Sandhya writes next.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later.</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/k-gnMTTlVVY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/k-gnMTTlVVY/when-dimple-met-rishi-by-sandhya-menon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/08/when-dimple-met-rishi-by-sandhya-menon.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-4972551328906125494Wed, 19 Jul 2017 10:00:00 +00002017-07-19T11:00:02.123+01:00The DNA of Orphan Black by Abbie Bernstein<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e8fsTgoy7GE/WWrRn-ojN7I/AAAAAAAAClg/gF43uowbRQoQ4JAGCcqhhFq14bSEcMgggCLcBGAs/s1600/Orphan%2BBlack%2BDNA_9iWpM98.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="653" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e8fsTgoy7GE/WWrRn-ojN7I/AAAAAAAAClg/gF43uowbRQoQ4JAGCcqhhFq14bSEcMgggCLcBGAs/s320/Orphan%2BBlack%2BDNA_9iWpM98.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The DNA of Orphan Black</i></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Abbie Bernstein</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;"><div style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><b>Summary: </b>Get under the skin of clone club. This comprehensive guide to Orphan Black has an access-all-areas pass to the most innovative drama on TV. Includes interviews with the show’s creators and cast, exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, production and visual effects secrets, plus everything you need to know about the Dyad Institute, the Proletheans and Neolutionists, Projects Leda and Castor, and more. This is a must-have for all fans of Orphan Black.</div></blockquote><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RBY5xBGimac/WWrQuquNDvI/AAAAAAAAClU/BfQjUwE0NbMeanlrXD4yzDNxZuxsW5vtACLcBGAs/s1600/B83E8107-02B8-4330-9103-BA984866537A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RBY5xBGimac/WWrQuquNDvI/AAAAAAAAClU/BfQjUwE0NbMeanlrXD4yzDNxZuxsW5vtACLcBGAs/s200/B83E8107-02B8-4330-9103-BA984866537A.jpg" width="200" /></a>I don't read many books like this -- books that are about the creation of a TV show or movie or something (beyond the Harry Potter ones) -- sometimes I'll get them just to flip through every now and then, or because they're aesthetically pleasing... This one? This is the first one I've actually sat down and read cover to cover.<br /><br /><br /><br />The book goes over how the creators came up with the idea for the show, how they went about making it, then it goes into the casting process and then how all the different departments worked together to create the characters was fascinating to read about...I honestly didn't expect it to hold my attention so well but it did.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1AwJmEC9hKk/WWrQyRv-lxI/AAAAAAAAClc/rKeQ1RGpW1oMiGYW5a90Rwd27V7VBO4rACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1AwJmEC9hKk/WWrQyRv-lxI/AAAAAAAAClc/rKeQ1RGpW1oMiGYW5a90Rwd27V7VBO4rACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6146.JPG" width="200" /></a>I think it's because the show itself is so great and original. Tatiana Maslany is literally half of the cast, and when you're watching it is so easy to forget that each of the Leda clones is played by the same actress and they're not actually different people. The book goes over how Tatiana made each character distinctive and how everyone from the writers to the wardrobe and hair and make-up departments worked together, taking even the smallest details into consideration.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9ezuik-TpDc/WWrQvt1zLII/AAAAAAAAClY/Eyq9a7Y2_PUH4WwYPfr8K2VaKiLV6BIKQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9ezuik-TpDc/WWrQvt1zLII/AAAAAAAAClY/Eyq9a7Y2_PUH4WwYPfr8K2VaKiLV6BIKQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6147.JPG" width="200" /></a>And I loved reading about the actress who plays the clones in scenes where more than one clone is present, so Tatiana is acting with someone. I hadn't really considered that someone would have to act that, I figured it was all camera trickery and editing, so it was fascinating reading how she analysed all of the idiosyncrasies and ways of moving Tatiana had for each clone so she could recreate it.<br /><br />Basically, the book was just really fun and interesting and I loved the pictures and the behind the scenes look we got into the world of the show (plus, it was fun getting to kind of recap the previous seasons and all of the back stories).<br /><br />I'd really recommend it for fans of the show, or even just people interested in some element of show/movie making be it acting or writing or directing or being part of the make-up or wardrobe department.<br /><br />I'd rate it 4 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/zy-va22JodE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/zy-va22JodE/the-dna-of-orphan-black-by-abbie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-dna-of-orphan-black-by-abbie.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-7823457946534399780Mon, 17 Jul 2017 20:30:00 +00002017-07-18T01:20:53.317+01:00When Rosie Met Jim by Melina Marchetta & Shoeboxes by Kathryn Barker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497956221l/35392965.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497956221l/35392965.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Review of Australian Fiction&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">(Volume 22, Issue 6)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">When Rosie Met Jim &amp; Shoeboxes</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Melina Marchetta &amp; Kathryn Barker</b></div><br />I don't read <a href="http://reviewofaustralianfiction.com/product-category/authors/marchetta-melina/">Review of Australian Fiction</a> very often, because short stories aren't my cup of tea really, but occasionally I will if an author I love writes a story for them.<br /><br />And, if you've been following this blog or any of my bookish social media for any length of time you'll know that Melina Marchetta is one of my top 5 favourite authors and she could literally announce she's rewritten the phone book and I'd want to read it...so there was no way I was skipping this edition of RAF.<br /><br />I'm going to just do a short review for each of the stories included, starting with the one I bought it for in the first place:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>When Rosie Met Jim</u></b></div><br />I really, really loved this story (which, as you may have guessed from what I said about short stories, is a rarity for me). It revolves around a girl stranded in a small town during a flood and while stuck there, she meets Jimmy Hailler (the same Jimmy Hailler from Saving Francesca).<br /><br />I'm surprised by how quickly Melina managed to make me care about the characters in the story (which is usually one of my issues with short stories) and how thoroughly hooked I was by the plot. It was one of those ones that left me wanting more of the characters without feeling like there was something missing, which isn't always an easy balance to achieve in short stories.<br /><br />And that's all I have to say really. The story was definitely worth it, and it has me so excited for Melina's next book (the Jimmy Hailler book she's been talking about for a few years now...I think this story was a prequel to that book and she's working on the book now, based on her blog posts?).<br /><br />Rating: 5 stars out of 5<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Shoeboxes</u></b></div><br />This one...this one was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to love it, but I sort of did. Not quite in the same way as I loved When Rosie Met Jim, where I really cared about the characters, this one was different. It was more...subtle, clever.<br /><br />It starts off with two women in a basement and we don't know if they've been kidnapped or why they're there really but bit by bit little details trickle into the story and...well, that's all I'll say because I don't want to ruin it.<br /><br />Basically, it hooked me from the start and had me confused but intrigued right until the very end...and the end -- I loved the ending. It surprised me and left me wanting to read a full thriller novel by Kathryn Barker because if she can pull off a full novel as well as she can a short story then I'm sure I'll love it.<br /><br />Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Overall: If short stories are your kind of thing, I definitely recommend checking out Review of Australian Fiction (every two weeks they release a new edition featuring two stories by Australian writers). Even if short stories aren't your kind of thing, like me, you might still enjoy some of the stories they publish.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/ijOGvHe2-MQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/ijOGvHe2-MQ/when-rosie-met-jim-by-melina-marchetta.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/07/when-rosie-met-jim-by-melina-marchetta.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-3274911715536993636Fri, 14 Jul 2017 21:00:00 +00002017-07-14T22:00:21.685+01:00The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486213221l/28433627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486213221l/28433627.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The One Hundred Nights of Hero</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Isabel Greenberg</b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Summary:</b> From the author who brought you The Encyclopedia of Early Earth comes another Epic Tale of Derring-Do. Prepare to be dazzled once more by the overwhelming power of stories and see Love prevail in the face of Terrible Adversity! You will read of betrayal, loyalty, madness, bad husbands, lovers both faithful and unfaithful, wise old crones, moons who come out of the sky, musical instruments that won’t stay quiet, friends and brothers and fathers and mothers and above all, many, many sisters.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"In the beginning was the world. And it was weird."</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Graphic novels are really not my kind of thing. Occasionally, I'll find one that I really like but mostly I just find them disappointing. Even when I like the story, I find myself wishing it were a novel instead because I was more story than pictures and a handful of words can deliver (which may explain why some of the graphic novels I've loved have been adaptations of novels).<br /><br />But back to the point: graphic novels = not for me. And yet I still keep taking chances on them...and this one, this was one of the ones that make me glad for that because I really, really loved it.<br /><br />I mean, if I'm honest, I would still adore a novelization of this story with these characters but I still loved this format of it.<br /><br />The illustrations were quirky and beautiful, the world was wonderful and wonderfully weird. I loved the way real issues of our world were woven into the fantasy world Greenberg created (it was very much a feminist read, in the very best ways).<br /><br />I loved that the characters of the story got under my skin way more than I expected them to. And speaking of unexpected? I was not expecting the main love story in the book to be between two woman, and I loved that. I love going into a book and finding LGBTQIA+ representation when I wasn't expecting it, and it was done beautifully in this. I wanted to read this because it was a retelling of The 1001 Nights, but if you told me it was a lesbian retelling of The 1001 Nights I'd have probably picked it up way sooner.<br /><br />I'll definitely be picking up a physical copy of this one at some point for my shelves (I read the e-book...would not recommend, it was a struggle to read the text in that format) as well as checking out the first book in her Early Earth series.<br /><br />I'd rate this one 5 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/DlwMOwiL6R4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/DlwMOwiL6R4/the-one-hundred-nights-of-hero-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-one-hundred-nights-of-hero-by.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-2040798501204102261Thu, 13 Jul 2017 19:00:00 +00002017-07-13T20:00:13.093+01:00We Are Okay by Nina LaCour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1471899036l/28243032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="308" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1471899036l/28243032.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">We Are Okay</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Nina LaCour</b></div><b><br /></b><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Summary:</b>&nbsp;<i>You go through life thinking there’s so much you need… <br /><br />Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.<br /></i><i><br /></i><i>Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.<br /></i><br />Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart. </blockquote>Okay, I'm not going to lie: I completely judged a book by its cover. I literally went into this book not knowing what it was going to be about...a few Goodreads friends had rated it highly, but I got it purely for the cover. And I am so glad I did, because I loved it.<br /><br />It wasn't at all what I expected it to be but every way it surprised me was a good way.<br /><br />I didn't expect the lesbian/bi/pan representation, but I was so happy it was there and that it was executed so well. It wasn't made into a huge deal, it wasn't a story revolving entirely around their sexuality, it was just this truth about these characters that wasn't prioritized any more or less than their other truths and I loved that.<br /><br />I loved that while romance was present, the book wasn't entirely about that. And I loved that it showed the complexities of going from friends to something more then trying to get back to friendship again.<br /><br />I loved that the way the book wrote about grief, and love, and family and friendship and the complexities and variations of those things. I just - I loved all of it. And it was written so beautifully.<br /><br />I don't really have much else to say about it really. I wasn't expecting such a little book to get under my skin in such a big way, but it did and I adored it. I'd rate it 5 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/7psOleSlnig" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/7psOleSlnig/we-are-okay-by-nina-lacour.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/07/we-are-okay-by-nina-lacour.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-5164676399460500733Wed, 12 Jul 2017 19:00:00 +00002017-07-12T20:00:05.715+01:00You Can't Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477907975l/29496435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477907975l/29496435.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">You Can't Touch My Hair:</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>And Other Things I Still Have to Explain</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Phoebe Robinson</b></div><b><br /></b><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Summary:</b> A hilarious and affecting essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from celebrated stand-up comedian and WNYC podcaster Phoebe Robinson.<br /><br />Phoebe Robinson is a stand-up comic, which means that, often, her everyday experiences become points of comedic fodder. And as a black woman in America, she maintains, sometimes you need to have a sense of humor to deal with the absurdity you are handed on the daily. Robinson has experienced her fair share over the years: she's been unceremoniously relegated to the role of "the black friend," as if she is somehow the authority on all things racial; she's been questioned about her love of U2 and Billy Joel ("isn t that . . . white people music?"); she's been called "uppity" for having an opinion in the workplace; she's been followed around stores by security guards; and yes, people do ask her whether they can touch her hair all. the. time. Now, she's ready to take these topics to the page and she s going to make you laugh as she s doing it.</blockquote>I've recently discovered that I'm scared of flying. I wasn't always afraid of flying, but I haven't been on a plane since I was in my early teens and somewhere between then and now, I seem to have developed a fear of it. What has that got to do with this book? Well... This book was the only thing that kept me calm and pleasantly distracted while being stuck thousands of feet off the ground in a big metal tube. I tried others, but this was the only one that worked.<br /><br />Basically, I loved the book...partly because of my gratitude for it keeping panic at bay for a few hours, but mostly just because it was excellent.<br /><br />I listened to it on audiobook and the narration was great. I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of Phoebe Robinson before starting this book (because I didn't really know much about her, wasn't familiar with her work, etc.) but I definitely was by the end of the book.<br /><br />She manages to perfectly juggle the balance between humour and seriousness and she opened my eyes to a lot of issues I was ignorant to either because I'm white (or in some cases, because I'm not American) and I haven't had the same life experiences as women of colour have.<br /><br />The tl;dr version: Both Phoebe Robinson and her book are fantastic and I really recommend checking it out, especially the audiobook version because her narration just brought it to the next level. It's funny and honest and important. I'd rate it 5 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/TLkT_CgkaJI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/TLkT_CgkaJI/you-cant-touch-my-hair-by-phoebe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/07/you-cant-touch-my-hair-by-phoebe.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-5886207594377195782Wed, 07 Jun 2017 19:00:00 +00002017-06-07T20:00:27.574+01:00Gemina by Aimie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480097137l/29236299.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480097137l/29236299.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Gemina (Illuminae Files #2)</i></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Aimie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff</b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Summary: </b>Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.<br /><br />Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.<br /><br />When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.<br /><br />But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.</blockquote>This review is going to be relatively short, because there isn't much to say about the book except that I really loved it.<br /><br />The first book in the series took a while to grow on me, I did love it in the end but it was a long process getting to that point, but this one hooked me fast and kept its grip right until the end. I stayed up all night reading it and I regret nothing about that decision.<br /><br />The format of this series is so unique, I've never read any other books quite so stylistically distinctive and I adore that about them. And I'm surprised by how easy it is to care about and feel invested in the well being of these characters, given the fact that we're not inside their heads in quite the same way we would be with a normal book but yeah -- I love the characters.<br /><br />And the plot, it was addictive and I loved the ways it tied in with the first book and left me desperate for the sequel.<br /><br />Basically, I love this series. I'd rate this one 5 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/9Bd92Ng2DvI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/9Bd92Ng2DvI/gemina-by-aimie-kaufman-and-jay-kristoff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/06/gemina-by-aimie-kaufman-and-jay-kristoff.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-3469579660373180033Mon, 05 Jun 2017 23:00:00 +00002017-06-06T00:00:27.202+01:00Ten LGBTQIA+ Books In My TBRThe topic for this weeks <a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html">Top Ten Tuesday</a>&nbsp;was "10 Books From X Genre That I've Recently Added To My TBR List" and given it's Pride month, I figured I'd give a list of the LGBTQ+ books I've added to my TBR recently (whether they're books I already own and plan to read, or ones that are out later in the year that I'm looking forward to).<br /><br />In no particular order...<br /><br />1. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4422777-wildthorn">Wildthorn</a></i> by Jane Eagland - This one has been in my TBR for years and I'm not sure why I haven't gotten to it yet, but I think it's a set in Victorian times and it's set in an asylum and the romance in it is F/F?<br /><br />2. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25164304-of-fire-and-stars?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Of Fire and Stars</a></i> by Audrey Coulthurst - F/F YA high fantasy novel about a princess who falls for the sister of the dude she's betrothed to. I've been saving this one...partly because my expectations are sky high, partly because I have a feeling I'm going to love it so I'm waiting for the right time to read it.<br /><br />3. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156987-if-i-was-your-girl?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">If I Was Your Girl</a></i> by Meredith Russo - This one didn't grab my attention from the summary, but I've heard nothing but good things about it and the main character is transgender and I want to read more books with good representation of trans characters so it's in my TBR now.<br /><br />4. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31449227-ramona-blue?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Ramona Blue</a></i> by Julie Murphy - There was a lot of controversy before this was released because the summary made it sound like the book was about a lesbophobic trope, but the author doesn't write the summary and the story is an own voices book about a bisexual and it sounds like it might tackle a lot of biphobic attitudes and stereotypes so I'm excited for this one.<br /><br />5. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23613983-run?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Run</a></i> by Kody Keplinger - This is another one with bi-rep, and I think of the main characters is blind too and it sounds like friendship will play a big role and I'm so here for more positive female friendships in books.<br /><br />&nbsp;6. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33158561-wild-beauty?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Wild Beauty</a></i> by Anna Marie McLemore - I know very little about this book, except that Anna Marie McLemore could write the phonebook and I'd read it in a heartbeat. I don't know what the LGBTQ+ rep in the book is specifically (beyond bisexuality), but the author has said that it's about a whole generation of queer Latina girls (and the author herself is queer and Latina and married to a transman, so it's own voices and I trust the rep).<br /><br />7. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24790901-the-abyss-surrounds-us?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">The Abyss Surrounds Us</a></i> by Emily Skrutskie - Space monsters... Space pirates... Space lesbians. Lesbian space pirates who train monsters? *Pining for this book* (At least I think they're lesbians, I don't know if one or both of them ID's as bi/pan, but I'm sure I saw a review that said lesbian - correct me if you've read it and that's wrong).<br /><br />8. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29414576-tash-hearts-tolstoy?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Tash Hearts Tolstoy</a></i> by Kathryn Ormsbee - Julie and a bunch of other people speak so highly of this one, and it's one of the few YA books with asexual rep so...sign me up!<br /><br />9. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6725896-a-love-story-starring-my-dead-best-friend?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend</a></i> by Emily Horner - This one has actually been in my TBR for years. I remember starting it but I put it down and didn't pick it up again and I can't remember why, so I think it deserves another chance. I can't remember, but I think the main character is either a lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual? (I know there was some f/f romance going on but I'm not sure I read far enough for labels?)<br /><br />10. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12000020-aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe</a></i> by Benjamin Alire Seanz - Everyone seems to love this one, I think that's part of the reason I've put off reading for so long because I've found so many hyped up books to be a disappointment. But it has gay characters and the audiobook is narrated by Lin Manuel Miranda so I'm going to listen to this one on audio this month.<br /><br />If anyone has any other LGBTQIA+ recs, feel free to leave them in the comments (particularly if they have LGBTQIA+ characters with identities unrepresented on this list).<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/VglDdkI3eIE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/VglDdkI3eIE/ten-lgbtqia-books-in-my-tbr.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/06/ten-lgbtqia-books-in-my-tbr.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-956923925954067082Mon, 05 Jun 2017 20:00:00 +00002017-06-05T21:38:25.539+01:00Everything and the Moon by Julia Quinn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327514751l/110390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="132" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327514751l/110390.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Everything and the Moon</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Julia Quinn</b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><br />Summary: </b><i>Seven years ago she broke his heart...<br /> </i><br />When Robert Kemble stumbles across Victoria Lyndon in hedgerow maze, he can't believe his eyes. The girl who'd torn him in two, who let him plan on elopement and then left him standing by the side of the road, was suddenly within arm's reach, and even though his fury still knew no bounds, she was impossible to resist...<br /><br /><i>Seven years ago he left her all but ruined...<br /> </i><br />Victoria's father had told her an earl would never marry a vicar's daughter, and he was right. Robert had promised her marriage, then danced off to London while she suffered the shame of a foiled elopement. But even though Victoria doesn't particularly enjoy her new life as a governess, when Robert offers her a job of a different sort—his mistress—she refuses, unable to sacrifice her honor, even for him.<br /><br />But Robert won't take no for an answer, and he vows to make her his, through any means possible. Can these star-crossed lovers learn to trust again? And is love really sweeter the second time around?</blockquote>I had heard so many good things about this author, and this book in particular, and I was so looking forward to reading it. Few things can snap me out of a reading slump as well as a good regency romance novel...and this did accomplish that, but it was also such a disappointment.<br /><br />By the end, I didn't hate it, but getting to a point where I actually liked it took ages and I had so many issues with it.<br /><div><br /></div>For starters, the insta-love. I loathe insta-love, with few exceptions. The author herself acknowledged at the beginning that those stories usually weren't her kind of thing but that she started writing these characters and there was just a spark there...okay. Except I felt absolutely no trace of that spark. Their relationship was so mind numbingly bland, nothing about it made me believe it was a case of love at first sight, nothing made me root for them as a couple. And because it attempted in a very deliberate way to show love at first sight, it skipped the best parts of these types of stories -- the falling in love bit, the bit where we get to go along for the ride on that journey with characters.<div><br /></div><div>Plus, the conflict in the story was so ridiculously contrived. The conversations the characters have, for a large chunk of the story, were frustrating as hell to read because it was like they were having two entirely different conversations and they would make comments that should have the other being like "wait, what? could you explain that because that doesn't match up with my version of events at all." but instead those comments are ignored entirely because...well, contrived drawn out conflict.</div><div><br /></div><div>And then there's the fact that rape is used as a plot device, not once, not twice, but three times. I can forgive the third because at least it wasn't used as an excuse for the male love interest to be a hero, unlike the first two...but yeah, I wish that trope would just go die in a fire and never be written again (also, the male love interest implies that he couldn't rape her because he knows she wants him so even if she protested it wouldn't be rape...uh, no. All of the no).</div><div><br /><div>I'm sure there were other things....but I think that's the gist of my issues with the book. The frustrating thing was that it wasn't inherently bad -- at some point in the story, it did hook me enough for me to continue reading, so it must've done something right. But it was mostly boring or frustrating. I think I might have more luck with a different book by this author because this one just pushed so many of my Nope buttons.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think the fact that so many people told me how great it was made it more of a disappointment than it would've been other wise. I'd rate it 2 stars out of 5.</div><div><br /></div><div>Later.</div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/ncKoP8aXgw4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/ncKoP8aXgw4/everything-and-moon-by-julia-quinn.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/06/everything-and-moon-by-julia-quinn.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-2787711094755327292Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:05:00 +00002017-04-29T01:15:45.146+01:00Mini-Review Round Up: Comics, Plays, Poetry & Other StuffDoes what it says on the tin really... There's quite a few short books I've read the past few months that I just don't have much to say about, so I wanted to just write a few short reviews for them.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Plays, Poetry &amp; Other Stuff</b></u></div><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13376363-teaching-my-mother-how-to-give-birth"><br /></a></i><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13376363-teaching-my-mother-how-to-give-birth">Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth</a></i> by Warsan Shire:<br /><b>Rating:</b> 4.5 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review: </b>As I've said before, poetry is very hit or miss with me. This particular collection was a hit. There are parts of it that won't resonate with me in quite the same way because I'm a white woman in Scotland but even the parts that revolve around things completely outside of my realm of experience are written so beautifully and with such a raw honesty that I still felt it.<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18135.Romeo_and_Juliet">Romeo and Juliet</a></i> by William Shakespeare<br /><b>Rating: </b>3.5 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review:</b> I don't know why it took me so long to read this one. Maybe because it felt like I already knew the story because of the countless adaptations I've read/watched. But I digress... I really like this play, I think on some level I even love it. The writing is beautiful, there are little passages in it that are absolutely stunning. I can get why a lot of people hate it, but I'm just not one of them (although, it irritates me to see people talk of it as a love story rather than a tragedy...it wasn't a story about love, and people talking about it like it is really warps peoples expectations of the play).<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8852.Macbeth">Macbeth</a></i> by William Shakespeare<br /><b>Rating: </b>3 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review: </b>I liked this one, it wasn't great. Plays are meant to be performed, but some can be enjoyed just as much by simply reading them...this isn't really one of those ones. It's not awful, but it's so obvious when reading that there's a spark of life missing from it on the page, something that can only be appreciated seeing it performed.<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23301805-we-should-all-be-feminists">We Should All Be Feminists</a></i> by Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie<br /><b>Rating:</b> 5 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review: </b>I really, really loved this one. It's an essay based on her 2013 TEDx talk and it's excellent. She writes real life stories as examples of her points and it's so poignant and beautifully done. I really recommend the audiobook version too -- the narration is fantastic.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Comics:</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I actually got the first three at a comic convention, the first two were free comics in the little goody bag things, the third was one I bought from one of the booths.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26130772-karnak-1">Karnak #1</a></i> by Warren Ellis<br /><b>Rating: </b>3 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review:</b> This one is set in the SHIELD world, and while I am familiar with some of that world, I don't think I was familiar enough with it to really appreciate this comic. I did like it and I was interested enough to consider continuing on to the next issues but it didn't wow me Time will tell if I continue the series.<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27853424-star-wars">Star Wars: Vader Down #1</a></i> by Jason Aaron<br /><b>Rating:</b> 3 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review: </b>Kind of disappointing, I think I just expected too much considering it's a Star Wars story. The art work is excellent and there was a few really good bits, but it didn't really leave me wanting to pick up the next issue.<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/87199284/how-to-be-a-ghost-an-illustrated-guide">How to Be a Ghost</a></i> by Neil Slorance and Campbell Miller<br /><b>Rating:</b> 5 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review: </b>This one isn't really a comic, it's more of a short picture book/zine type thing. But anyway, I really loved it, it was so cute. I've linked to the etsy store if you want to check it out/buy one.<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15852522-vader-s-little-princess">Vader's Little Princess</a></i>&nbsp;by Jeffrey Brown<br /><b>Rating:</b>&nbsp;5 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review:&nbsp;</b>I read Darth Vader and Son last year and loved that one too, they're just really cute and funny. They're basically just little comic strips about what Darth Vader could've been like raising Luke and Leia (this one focuses on Leia).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Picture/Kids Books:</b></u></div><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19543.Where_the_Wild_Things_Are">Where the Wild Things Are</a></i> by Maurice Sendak<br /><b>Rating: </b>4 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review:</b> I don't have much to say about this one really, except I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and it didn't disappoint me. It's really cute...and now I kind of want to see the movie, I had no desire to before reading this.<br /><br /><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/144974.The_Velveteen_Rabbit">The Velveteen Rabbit </a></i>by Margery Williams Bianco<br /><b>Rating: </b>4.5 stars out of 5<br /><b>Review:</b> Again, wanted to know what the fuss was about and I really loved it. It's one of those stories that I've heard so many people mention but it was never one I encountered when I was young, it wasn't what I expected it to be but it was really good.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/346952.Princess_Smartypants">Princess Smartypants</a></i> by Babette Cole</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Rating:</b> 1.5 stars out of 5</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Review: </b>I stumbled across this one while trying to find feminist picture books when someone asked for recs and it sounded great. In theory, I should've loved it. The overall message was good but the execution of it was kind of terrible. It was more feminist stereotype than feminist. It was supposed to be about how she doesn't need to get married to be happy...but rather than just using her words, she is really cruel to people who have done nothing to deserve it and she "outsmarts" her parents rather than just having an actual conversation with them. It's just...eugh. And I wasn't really fond of the artwork either.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So...those are all of the short books I've been reading. Mostly because, due to my major reading slump, short books seem to be all I can finish recently. Although, there will probably be more picture books in my TBR because my best friend is having a baby, so I want to find some good ones for the new little human in my life.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Later.</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/u6Z023uj0uU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/u6Z023uj0uU/mini-review-round-up-comics-plays.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/04/mini-review-round-up-comics-plays.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-6419966458472758875Thu, 27 Apr 2017 19:02:00 +00002017-04-27T20:02:19.467+01:00Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1464086016l/30280756.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1464086016l/30280756.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Melina Marchetta</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #f9cb9c;"><b>Summary: </b>Chief Inspector Bish Ortley of the London Met, divorced and still grieving the death of his son, has been drowning his anger in Scotch. Something has to give, and he’s no sooner suspended from the force than a busload of British students is subject to a deadly bomb attack across the Channel. Bish’s daughter is one of those on board.<br /><br />Also on the bus is Violette LeBrac. Raised in Australia, Violette has a troubled background. Thirteen years ago her grandfather bombed a London supermarket, killing dozens of people. Her mother, Noor, is serving a life sentence in connection with the incident. But before Violette’s part in the French tragedy can be established, she disappears.<br /><br />Bish, who was involved in Noor LeBrac’s arrest, is now compelled to question everything that happened back then. And the more he delves into the lives of the family he helped put away, the more he realises that truth wears many colours.&nbsp;</div></blockquote>My thoughts on this book are complicated. So let's start with my final rating before getting to the rest of it: I'd rate it 4 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Melina Marchetta is one of my favourite authors, I've read all 8 of her other books and loved them all (6 of them I'd consider all time favourites). This one was the 9th and it was very different from any of her others -- different genre, different setting, different type of main character. I didn't love it as much as her previous books, but by the end I did love it.<br /><br />In the beginning, I was hooked. That breathless kind of hooked where it felt like there was this weight on my chest because the subject matter was so heavy and I needed to see where it was heading. That feeling steadily lessened the deeper into the story I got until it left me with that same feeling I always get after reading a Melina Marchetta book -- like these characters had wormed their way under my skin bit by bit until I couldn't help but care about them and feel thoroughly invested in their happiness -- like they had carved out a little piece of my heart and made themselves at home there.<br /><br />The plot...it wasn't her best. Her writing is consistently lovely and she always excels at characters, she makes them feel so real and the way she writes relationships, evolving them and tangling lives together so beautifully...those are always her strongest points and this one was no exception.<br /><br />But, usually the plot is still really good even if it's not on the same level as her characterization. Unfortunately, in this one the plot felt quite average. It wasn't bad, far from it, but it dragged a lot and got quite repetitive in the middle, and it required <i>a lot</i> of suspension of disbelief. Given the genre of this one (mystery/crime), it felt like it should've been a bit more plot driven than her other novels (which are either contemporary or high fantasy and can still work really well when they're more character driven).<br /><br />Also, it should be noted: the plot does revolve around a terror attack. Or rather, two terror attacks set years apart. Meaning there's a lot of focus on racial profiling and the negative treatment of Muslims whenever attacks like that happen, from the public, law enforcement, and the press.<br /><br />The book is not own voices. It didn't come across as disrespectful or offensive* to me, quite the opposite really (aside from maybe one little comment in the beginning about a character name), but as I'm a white person from Scotland and I'm not Muslim, there could be things that just don't register with me because I've never had to live it. I'm not an authority on whether it's good representation or not, is what I'm getting at.<br /><br />So...I guess that's all. Great characters, kind of weak plot but still good in spite of that. It's not her best book but still very good. I'd rate it 4 stars out of 5. I'm not sure it's one I would recommend to people because, as I said, I don't know if it's good representation and I wouldn't want to recommend something to someone that could be perpetuating harmful stereotypes about Muslims.<br /><br />*although, the very fact that it's a story with Muslim characters that had terrorism be a big part of the plot may be a bit of a problem, especially as it's not own voices? I don't know. But, while the plot does hinge on terrorism, I think the heart of the story is family (as I said above, it's more character driven) and the Muslim characters are more victims of terrorism (in multiple ways) in the story than perpetrators and come across most sympathetically.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/etQfPHD4RYw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/etQfPHD4RYw/tell-truth-shame-devil-by-melina.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/04/tell-truth-shame-devil-by-melina.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-8681005754271246161Wed, 26 Apr 2017 20:30:00 +00002017-04-26T21:30:07.287+01:00A Catch Up: What I'm ReadingWell then. Hello. It's been a while, hasn't it?<br /><br />Honestly, I've just been struggling with the whole reading thing recently. I think I've only completed 9 books since March...and only two of those were actual novels (two were comics, two were really short picture books, one was a short audiobook, one poetry collection and also a short Shakespeare play). I just can't seem to focus. That, or the books I'm reading just aren't wowing me.<br /><br />But yes. I'm in a reading slump. The most drawn out, frustrating reading slump. So I figured I'd just go over the books I'm currently (trying) to read and give my thoughts on them so far.<br /><br />All pictures are from my <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lannaheartsbooks/">bookstagram</a> (that's where I post all of my new books too, if you're interested).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xbfCDJTWOcI/WP-PhHz3miI/AAAAAAAACkQ/VDQudP6GtbMryhrbpgQopbgDwPfJZGa3QCLcB/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xbfCDJTWOcI/WP-PhHz3miI/AAAAAAAACkQ/VDQudP6GtbMryhrbpgQopbgDwPfJZGa3QCLcB/s200/1.png" width="198" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Hate U Give&nbsp;</span></b></div><br />I'm not very far into this one. I do like it so far, but I've not found that spark in it yet -- maybe it's just a case of there being too much hype so my expectations were through the roof. But, regardless of that, I do think it's such an important book and one everyone should read.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mpPBZz2eB1g/WP-PxeXISzI/AAAAAAAACkU/SYPiopnyuFEvL4Cu8rAqnOc_xEm97FT-ACLcB/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mpPBZz2eB1g/WP-PxeXISzI/AAAAAAAACkU/SYPiopnyuFEvL4Cu8rAqnOc_xEm97FT-ACLcB/s200/1.png" width="200" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Book of Bera</span></b>&nbsp;</div><br /><br />This one... I had such high hopes for this one but I'm so disappointed so far. The story is very original, I haven't read any like it, there's something so distinctive about it. The problems are 1) the pacing is way off and 2) there's something about the writing I just really don't like. It reads almost like it's a translation that hasn't been done very well, if that makes sense (the dialogue in particular is clumsy and awkward). I'm going to give the book another 75-ish pages to sway my opinion before I give up on it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UMuG0ltuX3k/WP-QLGxgOdI/AAAAAAAACkY/3EjroIRw4pYL0eDZsq0f6DCv1QkvcJSGgCLcB/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UMuG0ltuX3k/WP-QLGxgOdI/AAAAAAAACkY/3EjroIRw4pYL0eDZsq0f6DCv1QkvcJSGgCLcB/s200/1.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">See How They Run</span></b></div><br />This one isn't bad. It's fast paced, I still like the characters...the problem is, I've forgotten so much about the story (including minor characters) and I really don't want to go back and reread the first book to refresh my memory. Also, I'm not too keen on the direction this one is going in.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I9u8BKj5_Xw/WP-QgTBKcTI/AAAAAAAACkc/MDc9sjRkB7cHzKNVidnhAzOnDXiLe2MXwCLcB/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I9u8BKj5_Xw/WP-QgTBKcTI/AAAAAAAACkc/MDc9sjRkB7cHzKNVidnhAzOnDXiLe2MXwCLcB/s200/1.png" width="200" /></a><b></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><b><span style="font-size: large;">If This Is A Woman</span></b></b></div><br /><br />This book is a bit different from the others, because I didn't intend to finish it any time soon. It's a non-fiction book about the all female concentration camp, Ravensbruck. It's very long and very thorough, going from how the camp came to exist and the Nazi officers that ended up working there, right through its entire history. I've just been reading bits of it whenever I'm up to reading about such heavy subject matter. It's excellent so far (excellent in the sense that it's well written, it's not boring as some historical non-fiction can be, given what it's about, the topic isn't what I'd call excellent).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VFSQ-DDtbM/WP-Q8-ArklI/AAAAAAAACkg/dB_VZYmIIfoxKMSJiV-Jcoo_o3gfmwehwCLcB/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VFSQ-DDtbM/WP-Q8-ArklI/AAAAAAAACkg/dB_VZYmIIfoxKMSJiV-Jcoo_o3gfmwehwCLcB/s200/1.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">My True Love Gave to Me</span></b></div><br />Short stories aren't my thing. I picked this one up because I figured short fiction could help with the reading slump, plus it has a lot of authors I adore in it... So far, I love it. But when it comes to short stories, they're either not long enough for me to feel invested in the story and characters or they do manage to hook me and make me care but then they're over too soon. With the majority of this book so far, most of the stories have been the latter...really good, but leaving me wanting more in that annoying, unsatisfied kind of way.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-om9vxj3ChXw/WP-RmuCHBlI/AAAAAAAACks/BE2h4u_LxygGHEpyN5vv0ZfJeWPV3P_FwCLcB/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-om9vxj3ChXw/WP-RmuCHBlI/AAAAAAAACks/BE2h4u_LxygGHEpyN5vv0ZfJeWPV3P_FwCLcB/s200/2.jpg" width="200" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Roanoke Girls</b></span></div><br />This one is actually an audiobook I was sent to review and I like it so far, the narration is really good, but I'm not hooked on the story yet and don't really feel anything for the characters so I'm kind of dragging my heels about finishing it. That's all I have to say on that one really.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g_H6NnBBf88/WP-Rby36srI/AAAAAAAACkk/3AIL_6nv8QUYbO7BOsaYHjRgBEEroy1NACEw/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g_H6NnBBf88/WP-Rby36srI/AAAAAAAACkk/3AIL_6nv8QUYbO7BOsaYHjRgBEEroy1NACEw/s200/1.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Perfect Shot</span></b></div><br />I thought this one would definitely break my reading slump. Regency romance or short romcoms are usually my go-to books for reading slumps but this one is letting me down. It's just so bland/dry, the first chapters nearly bored me to tears. I'd give up on the book if it wasn't so short (hopefully it'll get better if I stick with it).<br /><br />So...yeah. Those are the books I'm reading right now. I'm really hoping one of them snaps me out of this reading slump.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/oxwMlXL_C18" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/oxwMlXL_C18/a-catch-up-what-im-reading.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-catch-up-what-im-reading.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-3363078835698884990Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:03:00 +00002017-04-26T02:41:29.708+01:00Top Ten Things On my Bookish NOPE ListThe topic for this weeks <a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html">Top Ten Tuesday </a>was "top ten things that will make me instantly not want to read a book"/bookish turn offs. And to be honest, I'm not sure if I even have ten (I'm not a fussy reader) but we'll see.<br /><br />With most of these, you can't always tell from the summary if a book is guilty of these things BUT I get most of my recommendations from friends or other readers whose judgements I trust, so the issues are usually highlighted before I even pick up the book. And with some of these, there will be exceptions.<br /><b><br /></b><b>1. If the author is an horrible online</b><br /><br />I'm one of those people that finds it very hard to separate the artist from their creation. If I think negatively of the creator, it will cast a shadow over their work. Plus, I just don't want to support people that are awful. There aren't many authors who make this list, and someone has to be really awful to even make the list but yeah... If an author says something really shitty online and doesn't care that they hurt people, or if they're arrogant and rude to their fans -- nope. Nope nope nope. Don't want their book.<br /><b><br /></b><b>2. If the book is harmful/offensive (and not own voices)</b><br /><br />Now, I'm not just talking mildly offensive like those ridiculous people who try to get books banned for containing a sex scene or curse word. I mean if it has a racist premise, or it revolves around an anti-LGBTQIA+ stereotype (e.g. bisexuals are cheaters, lesbians will turn straight for the right guy, etc.) or contains a harmful trope (e.g. Bury Your Gays/Dead Lesbians, or portraying mentally ill people as dangerous) or it's just generally really hurtful (e.g. WW2 stories that have Jewish people falling in love with Nazis, or black people in historical novels falling in love with slave owners).<br /><br /><b>3. Alternating POV's</b><br /><br />This is one of the ones that definitely has exceptions. If the book sounds absolutely fantastic, if I've only seen glowing reviews, if it's by an author whose books I generally love -- then I'd make an exception. But in general, I bloody hate alternating POV's so much and there's been many, many books I've decided not to read for no other reason than I didn't want to deal with multiple POV's.<br /><br /><b>4. Boring books</b><br /><br />If someone I trust, or multiple reviews, accuse a book of being boring, I'm very unlikely to pick it up. In general, I'm not a fussy reader and there is a lot I can forgive while reading...but being bored while reading is not one of those things. I can read books that anger me, books that upset me, and maybe I'll be furious and rant about them and toss them across the room when I'm done but I can still get through them, the same can't be said for boring books.<br /><br /><b>5. Bad writing</b><br /><br />I can tolerate mediocre writing. I can overlook annoying stylistic choices. I can't read a book if the writing is really bad, it could have the most amazing story line but I find it really difficult to see past bad writing.<br /><br /><b>6. Insta-love</b><br /><br />This one didn't always turn me completely off a book, but it does now. There was such a flood of insta-love books back in the height of Twilight's popularity that I just - can't. I want complex romances, I want slow burning ones, I want romances built from strong friendships...basically, I want well developed romances rather than the lazy love/obsession-at-first-sight stuff these days.<br /><br /><b>7. Insensitive Plot Devices</b><br /><br />By this I mean subjects that should be written with care and consideration for the actual people who have experienced it, being written insensitively. Like rape being used as a plot device to give the female character a tragic back story, or as a way for the male love interest to "save" her. Or suicide being used as a shocking plot twist. Or mental illness being used to make the character "quirky" or interesting (like a manic pixie dreamgirl/boy). Basically, if it's sensitive subject matter and the author thinks of a content warning as a "spoiler" then they're writing it as if it's just a plot twist they can use for shock value, rather than something they intended to write respectfully...and if I know the book is written that way before reading it, I probably won't ever pick it up.<br /><br /><b>8. More than a trilogy</b><br /><br />If, going into a series, I know it's going to be more than a trilogy then I probably won't bother. For an author I really love, I might make an exception. But with one book being released a year (usually) who wants to spend more than three years on the same series? I've seen series dragged out for more than a decade which is just ridiculous. I have the attention span of a flea at times, and I'm expected to stay invested in the same world and characters for almost/more than a decade? Sorry, but no.<br /><br /><b>9. Cliffhanger endings</b><br /><br />If someone tells me before I read a book that it ends on a cliffhanger, I'm way less likely to read it. Cliffhangers are annoying and I hate when authors use them, even authors I like (and with them, I only tolerate them if it feels like the story arc of that book has been wrapped up and there's not too many loose ends).<br /><br /><b>10. Books set in Scotland</b><br /><br />To clarify, I will read books set in Scotland if the author is Scottish or if they've lived here for a really long time. But authors who aren't Scottish write my country and my people so terribly most of the time (particularly in fantasy)...and don't even get me started on when they try to write our accents phonetically. Just - no. So much no.<br /><br />Oh, hey, look -- I did have 10! I didn't think I had many. And I could have kept going (angel books? Not my thing. Dystopian YA? So done with that. BDSM? Nope. Riding on the coattails of Fifty Shades of Grey? FSoG was bad enough as it is...).<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/mkWJRjsOSaw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/mkWJRjsOSaw/top-ten-things-on-my-bookish-nope-list.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/04/top-ten-things-on-my-bookish-nope-list.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-4334161455760837312Fri, 07 Apr 2017 09:00:00 +00002017-04-08T01:20:02.035+01:00The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487956734l/30653853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487956734l/30653853.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Upside of Unrequited</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Becky Albertalli</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><b>Summary: </b>Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.<br /><br />Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back.<br /><br />There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?</div></blockquote>This is the first Becky Albertalli book I've read, and I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There was so much hype surrounding Becky's books that to begin with I didn't see what all the fuss was about...but then I got totally pulled in by all the cuteness and pretty much loved it by the end.<br /><br />I loved that it included such a diverse cast of characters. Her parents? An interracial female couple, one lesbian and the other bisexual, and one of them is Jewish so the MC and her siblings are also Jewish (and the love interest too). Her sister is a lesbian who dates a Korean-American pansexual. The main character is fat and has anxiety, so it has body and neuro diversity too. I can't say whether or not all of it is good representation, because not all of those identities represent me, but nothing stood out to me as being badly done.<br /><br />Basically, I loved the diversity part of it, and I loved that it wasn't made into a huge thing... first and foremost, the book felt like it was a cute coming of age romance, it didn't stray into Issue Book territory (those have their place, but they should not be the only representation of diversity) even when it was calling out ignorant comments or stereotypes.<br /><br />Her anxiety bothered me a little bit...but not because it was done poorly. I think it was well done and I love that her taking her meds was just casually mentioned and not made into a big thing, and I love that it showed that you don't have to be defined by that. But, I'm one of those people that's pretty susceptible to second-hand anxiety so her anxious thought process wasn't always fun to read about (although, because she's taking her meds, she her anxiety doesn't flare up too bad in the book).<br /><br />I hope some people read it and understand a bit better how anxiety can mess with your thought process though, because I've seen anxious characters dismissed as annoying/clingy before in reviews of other books because it's never acknowledged that it's anxiety, so it was nice to see that represented in the book.<br /><br />The romance in the book was predictable but cute. It's one of those stories where the reader knows from very early on how it's all going to play out (literally nothing surprised me) but it takes the character most of the book to catch on. I kind of hated the Will stuff for that reason, but Reid was great, he was such a little ball of adorable and I loved his relationship with Molly (and I really appreciated the fact that the romance wasn't used to "fix" her).<br /><br />And I really really loved that family was such a focus of the story. Especially that it showed cousins who were also friends -- growing up, one of my cousins was also one of my best friends and it was an interesting dynamic and it's one I don't see explored often but I wish it was.<br /><br />Overall, I really liked the book. I'd rate it 3.5 stars out of 5 (or 4, because I'd round up).<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/2gJgNrW_B7c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/2gJgNrW_B7c/the-upside-of-unrequited-by-becky.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-upside-of-unrequited-by-becky.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-3324695453362078196Wed, 08 Mar 2017 19:00:00 +00002017-03-09T00:38:58.285+00:00Half Rant, Half Review: Jughead by Chip Zdarsky<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Note: </b>the cover/synopsis I use is for the volume 1 (which includes issues 1-6), but I read the individual issues and I <i>think </i>I've read all of the ones that are out now so the review is for all of them.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1457289588l/27405590.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1457289588l/27405590.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Jughead</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Chip Zdarsky</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #ffd966;"><b>Summary:</b> In the grand tradition of comic book reboots like ARCHIE VOL. 1, Archie Comics proudly presents... JUGHEAD VOL. 1--from the comics dream team of Chip Zdarsky (HOWARD THE DUCK) and Erica Henderson (THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL)!<br /><br />Riverdale High provides a quality education and quality hot lunches, but when one of those is tampered with, JUGHEAD JONES swears vengeance! Well, I mean, he doesn't "swear." This is still Archie Comics after all.<br /><br />Collects JUGHEAD issues #1-6, plus bonus features.</div></blockquote>I'm only vaguely familiar with the old Archie comic world...I never read the comics themselves, but I've grown up watching adaptations based on them.<br /><br />I wasn't very familiar with Jughead's character, is what I'm getting at.<br /><br />I watched the first episode of Riverdale not realising what it was about until a few familiar characters showed up and then I saw all of the controversy about the way the writers of the show* wrote the Jughead character and it made me want to read the new series of comics about him.<br /><br />Basically, in the comics Jughead (from what I've seen) has always been written as asexual and aromantic (heavily implied), and the new writer of the comics has went with that and confirmed it on the page. Jughead is canonically touch averse and aroace...but if you've seen the show, you'll know that the writers decided to erase that part of his identity** by having him be romantically involved with Betty.<br /><br />Erasure and/or staight-washing of LGBTQIA+ identities is wrong and harmful, and asexuality and aromanticism are right up the top of the list of identities/orientations that are rarely ever represented in the media and when they are, it's almost never good representation (which perpetuates ignorance and harm towards actual people who identify as aro/ace-spec).<br /><br />Check out the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AroAceJugheadOrBust?src=hash">#AroAceJugheadOrBust</a> hashtag on twitter for more on that.<br /><br />...And this has been my long-winded way of explaining how I ended up reading the Jughead comics (and why, in spite of the things Riverdale may get right, the writers are still pretty awful). Now onto what I actually thought of the comics.<br /><br />I pretty much loved them. I'm not a huge comic book reader (not for lack of wanting to be, its just overwhelming choosing where to start and keeping up with them once you do), but ones like this make me wish I was, I love the art style and the characters so much, especially Jughead.<br /><br />Jughead is such an excellent protagonist. He's funny and he's a good friend and he is such a wonderfully positive example of aroace representation done right. He isn't struggling with who he is, he knows exactly who he is 100% cool with it and his friends know and they're accepting and cool with it too.<br /><br />The comic still acknowledges little moments of ignorance from his friends and some of the misunderstandings that aro/ace people often face but it does it in a way that doesn't darken the tone of the comic, it doesn't make the story revolve around his aromanticism/asexuality and... and I just really loved that. A lot. I hate when LGBTQ+ stories make it seem like that's <i>all</i> that the characters are rather just part of them.<br /><br />The plot of the comics weren't really my cup of tea. I think I'd have enjoyed them more when I was much younger, but while I wasn't too interested or invested in the overall story arc, the characters made it easy to enjoy in spite of that.<br /><br />I'd rate them 4.5 stars out of 5. I really enjoyed reading them and they've made me want to see more good representation of ace/aro-spec people in fiction and it's made me angry about the fact they erased that part of his character on the show because the writers are too ignorant and incompetent to write his character well without using romance as a crutch.<br /><br />Later.<br /><br />*I mean, the Jughead kiss isn't the only crappy thing it pulled. There was the girls kissing girls for attention thing and the whole statutory rape by an authority figure nonsense too. And the Gay Best Friend trope. I've seen some people say the racial diversity is good, but I'm not the right person to judge that but if it's true, it just sucks that they're failing so spectacularly in other areas.<br /><br />**Even if they make him ace-spec somewhere down the line, it'll be like they tried to present his asexuality in a way that people who aren't ace (or aroace) can accept...which makes it clear that his character is not, never was, and never will be intended to be good representation for ace/aro people. He never fell anywhere in the middle of the spectrum, he wasn't grey-a or anything, he was firmly ace and aro.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/BFspF770RJ8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/BFspF770RJ8/jughead-by-chip-zdarsky.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/03/jughead-by-chip-zdarsky.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-574106144060320180Mon, 27 Feb 2017 20:30:00 +00002017-02-27T20:42:24.730+00:00On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-small;"><b>Note: </b>There will be a few <b>spoilers </b>in this review. Not major ones, I don't think, but it's hard to explain my thoughts properly without them (but you can skip over those and get my general opinion of the book without the specifics -- the spoilers are in between the "Timelessness" header and stop after the "END OF NEGATIVES" one).</span><br /><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454773346l/25744542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454773346l/25744542.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">On the Other Side</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Carrie Hope Fletcher</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><b>Summary: </b>Evie Snow is eighty-two when she quietly passes away in her sleep, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. It's the way most people wish to leave the world but when Evie reaches the door of her own private heaven, she finds that she's become her twenty-seven-year-old self and the door won't open.<br /><br />Evie's soul must be light enough to pass through so she needs to get rid of whatever is making her soul heavy. For Evie, this means unburdening herself of the three secrets that have weighed her down for over fifty years, so she must find a way to reveal them before it's too late. As Evie begins the journey of a lifetime, she learns more about life and love than she ever thought possible, and somehow , some way, she may also find her way back to her long lost love . . .</div></blockquote>I am very conflicted about this book. It's one of those marmite books that people will either love or hate depending on their tolerance for sweetness in a story -- some love it, some will find it sweet to the point of being sickly. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, and I read the book on a good day so it worked for me.<br /><br />Overall, I would say I liked it and I really enjoyed reading it (or rather, listening to it)...but I had some issues too (surprisingly not with it being sweet and twee to a fault).<br /><br />I actually started reading the book last year and just could not get into it, then I had the chance to review the audiobook so I decided to give it another go. I don't know if it was the timing of it, or the change of format, but I actually really enjoyed listening to the book. The narration is excellent and I highly recommend the audible version.<br /><br />Now...onto the issues (and I want to make it clear that, in spite of these issues, I don't think it was a bad book--and I'll get to the positives after the negatives are out the way--these were just the things that prevented me from loving it). I'll break this down into sections:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>"Timelessness"</u></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u><br /></u></b></div>First of all, the time period of the book. <a href="http://carriehopefletcher.com/post/147518026864/hi-carrie-i-just-got-on-the-other-side-the-other">Carrie has said</a> that she didn't set it in a specific time period because she wanted Evie to be timeless, for people to relate to her story even years from now... The problem is, that didn't quite work.<br /><br />The conflict of the story, the catalyst that sets everything else in motion, is a very dated issue and it's one that does not work in a contemporary setting and is way harder to relate to now. The gist of it:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Evie's mother doesn't want Evie to get a job as an artist (or any job at all, she's to be a wealthy stay at home wife and mother). She wants to arrange her marriage to a rich family friend whom she knows Evie doesn't love. And Evie eventually caves to this pressure...because her brother is gay and she wants to marry a rich guy so she can support him financially because she assumes their parents cut him out of their lives when he comes out (more on that ridiculousness soon).</blockquote>If the story were set maybe 50-60+ years ago, an adult woman allowing her rich mother to dictate her life the way she does in the story would be believable and understandable and easy to sympathise with. Even the gay element would make sense because back then being an openly gay man was a criminal offence, and their rich parents would have had the power to have her brother sent to a psychiatric hospital to undergo awful "treatments" for being gay.<br /><br />But that plot line does not work in a modern day setting. Evie and her brother could very easily move out and find jobs (she didn't even for one second consider compromising temporarily on her dream of being an artist and just getting a regular job to pay the bills). It might not be the comfortable lifestyle they're used to, but they would've been happy and free to live the lives they wanted.<br /><br />A timeless story does not mean a story that isn't anchored to a certain point in time. There are books written or set hundreds of years ago that are timeless...not because the time period was left vague, but because at the heart of the stories are emotions and moral conflicts that are part of being human. They're timeless because in spite of all the differences between Then and Now, people <i>still</i> connect to the humanity in the stories. Deliberate removal of time period doesn't make a story timeless.<br /><br />By refusing to choose a definitive time period for the story, it vastly altered the way the characters and their motivations and circumstances are interpreted.<br /><br />Basically, I get what she was aiming for with the timelessness, but the execution of it doesn't quite work. The whole conflict in the story was really, really contrived and weak.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Her Brother</b></u></div><br />Now...the next issue. I really, really, really didn't like the weird straight saviour thing it had going on. Like I said above, it was so contrived and didn't sit well with me at all (but perhaps I'm just being over sensitive).<br /><br />Evie gives up the man she loves because her brother is gay, and we're supposed to view it as this big noble sacrifice but it was just...eugh. She doesn't even give him a say in the matter, she just decides that because he's gay she has to support him financially which is so obliviously condescending. It didn't make sense and it really bothered me.<br /><br />Had it been set in a time when someone could be locked up (in prison or in an institution) for being gay then that would've made sense. Then, her need to "protect" her brother would've been totally valid because she would have something she was actually trying to protect him from other than...well, not being rich anymore (and even that was just something she <i>assumed</i> would happen, not something certain).<br /><br />Again, it just felt really condescending that she thought he wasn't capable of taking care of himself without her "sacrifice" -- he was a 20 year old man. He needed her love and her support, he did not need her to be his straight white night swooping in to save the day by sacrificing her own happiness so he could continue remain wealthy when he came out.<br /><br />The implication that, had she not made her big sacrifice, he would've ended up on the streets or had to remain in the closet, unhappily marry a woman and live a miserable lie was just ridiculous. His safety wasn't in question, he would not have ended up on the streets if he came out. There was no reason, beyond financial gain, for her to do what she did to "protect" him.<br /><br />Basically, him being gay was just used as a plot device in<i> her</i> story and I hated that. Vincent was a character who just happened to be bisexual, while Eddie was a Gay Character -- and a Gay Character whose whole story revolves around his gayness...and worse, it wasn't even about <i>him</i>, it was just used to create conflict in Evie's story.<br /><br />So...That bugged me. A lot. It's not even that it was outright offensive representation, just kind of ignorant, but it bothered me a lot (even more so after reading the novella and having her "selflessness" perpetuated even further).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>END OF NEGATIVES</b></u></div><br />Beyond those things, there was a lot I really liked about the story.<br /><br />The characters were sweet and easy to care about, and I absolutely loved that Jim's character was just a genuinely good guy who got along with Vincent because I hate when characters are vilified for no other reason than they're seen as competition to the love interest (or main character) of the story -- life, and people, are more complex than that and I like that the story showed those complexities.<br /><br />I loved that LGBTQ+ characters were included,&nbsp;especially the fact that the love interest of the story was a bisexual guy which doesn't happen often in fiction (although the gay representation was kind of problematic, as mentioned above).<br /><br />And the magical realism...for the most part, I loved it (some bits were a little unoriginal, like there's a scene that is really similar to a thing that happens in Once Upon a Time). It's not the type I'd usually read -- most magical realism I've read (and adored) has been thoroughly set in our world, just with magical elements casually woven into it... This one, it felt like it kind of straddled the line between fantasy and magical realism, but I liked it.<br /><br />Overall, the book is really cute. I'd rate it 3.5 stars out of 5 (if I'm rating the audiobook specifically, I'd rate it 4 stars out of 5 purely for how much I enjoyed the performance -- I'd definitely listen to any audiobooks Carrie narrates in future). I do look forward to seeing more of Carrie's books in future, in spite of the issues I had with this one.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/J3x20ZDE2Qw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/J3x20ZDE2Qw/on-other-side-by-carrie-hope-fletcher.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/on-other-side-by-carrie-hope-fletcher.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-5768442692855202808Fri, 24 Feb 2017 20:00:00 +00002017-02-24T20:00:06.191+00:00Buffering by Hannah Hart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463949051l/28217831.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463949051l/28217831.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Buffering</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Hannah Hart</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #ffe599;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Summary:</b> The wildly popular YouTube personality and author of the New York Times bestseller My Drunk Kitchen is back! This time, she’s stirring up memories and tales from her past.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By combing through the journals that Hannah has kept for much of her life, this collection of narrative essays deliver a fuller picture of her life, her experiences, and the things she’s figured out about family, faith, love, sexuality, self-worth, friendship and fame.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Revealing what makes Hannah tick, this sometimes cringe-worthy, poignant collection of stories is sure to deliver plenty of Hannah’s wit and wisdom, and hopefully encourage you to try your hand at her patented brand of reckless optimism.</div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">So... I loved this book way more than I thought I was going to. Not that I expected it to be bad, I didn't, but I'm not a major follower of Hannah's online. I watch some of her videos (and saw Camp Takota) but I don't follow religiously so I wasn't sure how interested I would be listening to her life story (and I guess I had a bit of an unfair preconceived opinion of "Youtube Books" -- which was one of the reasons I wanted to try one really).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Basically, I just got this one on a whim and I'm really glad I did.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She is an excellent storyteller -- both her writing and her narration (I listened to it on audio, which I highly recommend). And it wasn't anything like I thought it would be. Given that she's a Youtuber and a lesbian, I figured those would be the biggest aspects of the book, but they weren't.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I mean, they played a part (and were really interesting to hear about), but most of the story was about her life growing up and it provides good insight into what it's like to grow up with a parent who has a mental illness and the impact it can have on a child and the adult they become.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The book was ultimately more about family than anything else, and it really drives home the message that you can never really know what someone else is going through or what they've gone through.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if you're not familiar with Hannah Harts online presence, I still highly recommend this book. I'd rate it 5 stars out of 5.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later.</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/WZYCb_FFgkQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/WZYCb_FFgkQ/buffering-by-hannah-hart.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/buffering-by-hannah-hart.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-3137724070953154763Thu, 23 Feb 2017 20:00:00 +00002017-02-23T22:31:48.500+00:00Let's Talk: Awesome Women in Non-FictionI seem to have this new obsession with reading/listening to non-fiction books by/about awesome women.<br /><br />With the memoirs... It's so easy to measure yourself against the glittering, photoshopped, edited versions of celebrities and feel inadequate. But they're just people. Their anxieties and insecurities and struggles are just like ours. They have issues with mental illness and body image and self doubt, just like us. And they manage to be great in spite of those, so we can be too.<br /><br />And with the biographies/historical non-fic... it's inspiring to read about the extraordinary lives so many women have lived, to read about the things they've endured and extraordinary things they've done and see the spaces they've carved out for themselves in history. To see all the ways things have changed for women...and the ways that they haven't.<br /><br />And that's my rambling introduction to the list of biographies/memoirs of awesome women that are in my TBR (or on my wishlist). The ones in italics are the ones I've already read:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xi6Zpm60Gsg/WKuTXtiuOYI/AAAAAAAACi8/xi3drrd2-FIRNlRdMrDRSfERs1wOON0QgCLcB/s1600/memoirs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xi6Zpm60Gsg/WKuTXtiuOYI/AAAAAAAACi8/xi3drrd2-FIRNlRdMrDRSfERs1wOON0QgCLcB/s400/memoirs.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Yes Please by Amy Poehler</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The Princess Diarist</i>, Shockaholic, and Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Buffering by Hannah Hart</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">If This is a Woman: Inside Ravensbruk by Sarah Helm (currently reading)</div><div style="text-align: center;">You Can't Touch My Hair by Jessica Williams</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bloom by Estee Lalonde</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">Forever Liesl by Charmian Carr</div><div style="text-align: center;">Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly</div><div style="text-align: center;">You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day</div><div style="text-align: center;">In the Country We Love: by Diane Guerrero</div><div style="text-align: center;">Unsinkable by Debbie Reynolds</div><div style="text-align: center;">Debbie: My Life by Debbie Reynolds</div><div style="text-align: center;">Nujeen by Nujeen Mustafa</div><div style="text-align: center;">Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu</div><div style="text-align: center;">Spectacles by Sue Perkins</div><div style="text-align: center;">Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres</div><div style="text-align: center;">Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham</div><div style="text-align: center;">Unfilered by Lily Collins</div><div style="text-align: center;">Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth</div><div style="text-align: center;">The Places at the End of the World, Ghosts by Daylight Janine di Giovanni</div><br />Basically, women are fabulous and we can learn a lot from the ones who lived and grew before us, both &nbsp;ourselves and about things outwith our realm of experience (e.g. I'm a white woman, I've never had to deal with the racism women of colour face but that doesn't mean I should be ignorant to it).<br /><br />If you have any recommendations of other books that should be on my radar, let me know? (Especially if you have any recs of non-fiction books by transwomen because they're vastly underrepresented in my tbr).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JzUFkQD4VzU/WKuWSz5asXI/AAAAAAAACjI/7_xvOXJJNtQPvqRmDGQ6GVOIh8OfcuPvgCLcB/s1600/michelle.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JzUFkQD4VzU/WKuWSz5asXI/AAAAAAAACjI/7_xvOXJJNtQPvqRmDGQ6GVOIh8OfcuPvgCLcB/s400/michelle.gif" width="400" /></a></div><br />Later.<br /><br />p.s. anyone else notice a bit of a theme going on with the covers of memoirs?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJRIJdNf120/WKuWnIpcd1I/AAAAAAAACjQ/ZPLf0DWqBh4IsOPJkpt92AqJQamIYirmQCLcB/s1600/blue.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJRIJdNf120/WKuWnIpcd1I/AAAAAAAACjQ/ZPLf0DWqBh4IsOPJkpt92AqJQamIYirmQCLcB/s1600/blue.gif" /></a></div><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/FKv_HAnMkoU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/FKv_HAnMkoU/lets-talk-awesome-women-in-non-fiction.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/lets-talk-awesome-women-in-non-fiction.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-128720191468711485Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:00:00 +00002017-02-22T04:00:21.008+00:00The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474558745l/25493853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474558745l/25493853.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Bear and the Nightingale</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Katherine Arden</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #f9cb9c;"><b>Summary: </b>At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.<br /><br />After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.<br /><br />And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.<br /><br />As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales. </div></blockquote>This is one of those books that reminds me why I love reading -- it got all under my skin and hooked its nails into my emotions and I loved every second of it. Before I was even half way through I knew it had earned a spot on my favourites shelf.<br /><br />Basically...I adored it.<br /><br />The world was a mix of old Russia and intricate folklore woven together beautifully and the writing was lovely. And the characters... I loved them, especially Vasya -- she was an excellent character, I loved that she was complex and strong but her strength was in her compassion and fearlessness and the lengths she'd go to to protect the people she cares about rather than physical strength. And I loved the way the relationships developed and that family was such a big role in the story.<br /><br />I loved all of it pretty much. The only thing I didn't love was that there was spousal rape and assault mentioned kind of casually in the story and not really acknowledged as wrong...which is fitting with the time period and it isn't written graphically, but I thought I'd mention that here in case that was a deal breaker for someone or something that would bother them if they weren't expecting it.<br /><br />I don't have much else to say about the book really...I just really, really loved it and it left me pining for the sequels. I'd rate it 5 stars out of 5.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HX9VZJCcCHE/WKuXDDbgfXI/AAAAAAAACjU/arJWze-S2yoEANXtAsJ-zPRZnFHmVv8fQCLcB/s1600/bn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HX9VZJCcCHE/WKuXDDbgfXI/AAAAAAAACjU/arJWze-S2yoEANXtAsJ-zPRZnFHmVv8fQCLcB/s400/bn.jpg" width="362" /></a></div><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/p1ygomrQHiU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/p1ygomrQHiU/the-bear-and-nightingale-by-katherine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-bear-and-nightingale-by-katherine.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-4718695235593008909Tue, 21 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +00002017-02-21T00:00:05.857+00:00Ten Books That Surprised or Disappointed MeSo the theme for this weeks <a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html">Top Ten Tuesday</a> is <i>"Ten Books I Loved Less/More Than I Thought I Would (recently or all time) -- or you could do something like books I liked more/less than everyone else"</i> -- I'm not sure I could come up with 10 for either, so I'm going to do a mix of both.<br /><br />Let's start with the five books that I loved way more than I thought I was going to...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>The Pleasant Surprises</u></b>:</div><b><br /></b><b>1. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/834713.A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns">A Thousand Splendid Suns</a></i> by Khaled Hosseini</b> - This book...I'd seen so many people talk about it that eventually I caved and read it. I didn't expect to read it in one sitting, I didn't expect to fall so thoroughly in love with the characters or the book...but I did exactly that.<br /><br /><b>2. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18970293-red-leaves">Red Leaves</a></i> by Paullina Simons</b> - I saw a lot of bad reviews of this book before I read it. Most of them were from people who read her other book, The Bronze Horseman, and went into it expecting it to be just as great so it failed by comparison. But me? I loved it. It was completely different to The Bronze Horseman -- different tone, different genre, very different characters. I can't explain why I loved it, because so much of it was just not my kind of thing or something I'd normally go for...but for some inexplicable reason, I love this book.<br /><br /><b>3. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12578077-obsidian?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Obsidian</a></i> by Jennifer L. Armentrout</b> - This book sounded super cheesy and there is many a Twilight comparison to be made...it sounded like it could've been kind of awful. Except it wasn't. It was just one of those really fun, cute, addictive stories that reminded me of the good parts of Twilight and I loved it. Is it cheesy? Oh, absolutely. And I love it for that reason,<br /><b><br /></b><b>4. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11925514-code-name-verity?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Code Name Verity</a></i> by Elizabeth Wein</b> - Everyone seemed to be raving about this book when it came out. The hype was literally the only reason I picked it up...I didn't think I'd like it, I just wanted to know what the fuss was about. And for more than half the book, I could not figure out why everyone loved the book so damn much. Then the last third of the book happened. And the book now lives on my favourites shelf (except when it payed a visit to my best friend whom I harassed into reading it and she loved it just as much).<br /><br /><b>5. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6952.Like_Water_for_Chocolate?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Like Water for Chocolate </a></i>by Laura Esquivel</b> - This book was completely different to anything I'd ever read before. I didn't think I'd love it, I read it purely on recommendation and I don't know what I expected from it (maybe for it to be dull and stuffy and boring), but what I got from it was a new addition to my favourites shelf and a new found love of the magical realism genre. I've been pining for more books just like this one since I finished it.<br /><br />What I've learned from (most of) these books is that I should go out of my comfort zone more...many of my favourite books have been ones I took a chance on, ones that were outside of my usual genres or styles.<br /><br />And now onto the negatives... These books, they're not necessarily bad books, it was usually just that they weren't really my cup of tea or that they were so hyped up by everyone that they were kind of a let down to me. So...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>The Disappointments:</b></u></div><b><br /></b><b>1. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839984-cruel-beauty?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Cruel Beauty</a></i> by Rosamund Hodge</b> - This one was...well, disappointing. There was so much hype and it was retelling a fairy tale I'd usually love. But I didn't click with the characters, and the world that other people found beautiful was just a bit of a hot mess to me really. I had other issues with the book, but it really just comes down to this: was not my cup of tea, at all. But it should have been, which was the biggest disappointment. I really should take another chance on her books though, because she is far from being a bad author.<br /><br /><b>2. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27774758-an-ember-in-the-ashes?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">An Ember in the Ashes</a></i> by Sabaa Tahir</b> - I thought I'd love this book. Everyone else seemed to...but it was actually kind of a let down. Mostly because the alternating POV's were irritating to me and it didn't begin to hook me until the book was nearly over. It wasn't a bad book at all, it just didn't deliver the amazing I was expecting from it or that other people found in it. I still plan to read the sequel(s?) though.<br /><br /><b>3. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4374400-if-i-stay?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">If I Stay</a></i> by Gayle Forman</b> - Well then. Yes. Again...everyone loved this. Do I think it's a bad book? No. But it was very bland. And forgettable. It's one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better (perhaps because music plays a part in the story, and we actually get to hear it in the movie while the book is just words on a page so that musical spark doesn't translate).<br /><br /><b>4. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7171637-clockwork-angel?ac=1&amp;from_search=true">Clockwork Angel</a></i> by Cassandra Clare</b> - I don't think I hated this book at the time. I haven't looked up my review of it, but I don't remember loving it. It honestly just felt like a slightly altered retelling of the original series only in a steampunk-ish setting. The second book was better, but I wasn't into the first and I really disagree with the people who think it's better than the original TMI trilogy.<br /><br /><b>5. <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1162543.Breaking_Dawn">Breaking Dawn</a></i> by Stephenie Meyer</b> - ...Okay, so I couldn't think of a fifth disappointment off of the top of my head so I'm going way back with this one. The series has its issues, but I do still have a genuine soft spot and love for the first three books. This one? Will forever be a disappointment. I still remember the spoilers leaking and everyone laughing thinking it was a joke, that the excerpts leaked were fanfictions...but no, that was the actual story. *sigh* :P<br /><br />And I guess that's it. Do you agree/disagree with any of my choices? Are there any books everyone else seems to love but you hate?<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/N4qYFuzrAQ8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/N4qYFuzrAQ8/ten-books-that-surprised-or.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/ten-books-that-surprised-or.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-2714928636262452665Wed, 08 Feb 2017 23:30:00 +00002017-02-08T23:30:09.121+00:00Review/Discussion: Blue is the Warmest Colour by Julie Maroh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1373329702l/17465574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1373329702l/17465574.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Blue is the Warmest Colour</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Julie Maroh</b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><b>Summary: </b>Blue is the Warmest Color is a graphic novel about growing up, falling in love, and coming out. Clementine is a junior in high school who seems average enough: she has friends, family, and the romantic attention of the boys in her school. When her openly gay best friend takes her out on the town, she wanders into a lesbian bar where she encounters Emma: a punkish, confident girl with blue hair. Their attraction is instant and electric, and Clementine find herself in a relationship that will test her friends, parents, and her own ideas about herself and her identity.</div></blockquote>This graphic novel has been on my radar for a really long time, and I'm not sure why it took me so long to pick it up...but I finally did. And I sort of loved it, but I also had a couple of issues with it.<br /><br />Let's start with the easy stuff: the artwork. The artwork in this is absolutely stunning. I loved that aspect of it -- the drawings, the colour palette...all of it.<br /><br />I loved the characters so much. When it comes to graphic novels, I usually don't feel like the characters have gotten under my skin the way they do when I read a good novel, but the characters in this...they burrowed right under my skin and made themselves at home. They felt realist and I felt for them -- I was happy for their happiness and sad right along with their sadness.<br /><br />And the story... The story started out so well. The majority of it was done beautifully, especially Clementine coming to terms with her sexuality, her struggle with it, then acceptance of it... I loved that. And I loved her relationship with Emma and the fact it showed the ups and the downs, instead of<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>just the good parts.<br /><br />It went downhill a bit towards the end though. The thing is, we know what's going to happen right from the start, just not the specifics of it...and when it got to the specifics, the execution of it felt rushed (in spite of us knowing it would happen) and contrived and like the way it was told didn't measure up to the high standards set by the earlier parts of the book.<br /><br />Now, onto the complicated bit (<b><u>and there will be some spoilers</u></b>), the bit that makes me feel the need to say "I loved it, <i><b>but</b></i>" rather than just saying I loved it...<br /><br />There was a kind of biphobic tone to the book. Maybe I misjudged that, but it's just how it came across to me while reading. The reason it bothered me was that it felt like the author didn't even realise she was doing it... like it wasn't this thing deliberately written into the story and acknowledged.<br /><br />For example: there's a scene with Emma and Clementine, and Emma basically says the reason she's been holding back with Emma is because she thinks that Clem would eventually leave her for a guy, kind of implying that her feelings were just a phase or something. And then later in the story, it reinforces the stereotype that bisexual women cheat on their girlfriends with men and it doesn't really go into why she did it...so instead of giving some other reason for that to have happened, it literally just is a stereotype with nothing more to it.<br /><br />Also, it's never really confirmed whether Clem actually is bisexual or not...there are things that imply it (the inclusion of biphobic stereotypes in relation to her character adds to that) but the word isn't really used. But even if she isn't, it doesn't change the biphobia that actually is present in the story (if anything, it adds to it because bi erasure is a thing, so implying that she's bi in the story without actually using the word, well...).<br /><br />Did that make me hate the book? No. But it did bother me a bit.<br /><br />And then there's the Dead Lesbians/Bury Your Gays trope. Now, the fact that it was written by a lesbian makes it bother me slightly less...but still, it was poorly executed and the story doesn't exist in a vacuum and the fact that the story contains that trope makes it just another of many stories where the lesbian couple is torn apart by death. It didn't make me angry, the way it would had a straight person written it, but it did disappoint me.<br /><br />I guess that's all I have to say about it. I'd rate it 4 stars out of 5. I still really recommend it, for all the stuff it gets right. If anyone has any thoughts re: biphobia in the story/on the Dead Lesbians trope, let me know?<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/W7ZlOlnvaKg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/W7ZlOlnvaKg/reviewdiscussion-blue-is-warmest-colour.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/reviewdiscussion-blue-is-warmest-colour.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-8459921384791904981Mon, 06 Feb 2017 03:00:00 +00002017-02-07T13:35:50.068+00:00Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1471010109l/28962906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1471010109l/28962906.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Stalking Jack the Ripper</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Kerri Maniscalco</b></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><b>Summary: </b>Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.<br /><br />Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.</div></blockquote>I am one of the many people who has a morbid fascination with the Jack the Ripper case. I also have a morbid fascination with mortuary work. And I love historical romance, especially ones with feminist heroines who fight against societal pressures.<br /><br />I was expecting to love this book, is what I'm getting at.<br /><br />In theory, it ticked so many boxes that interest me...but in execution, it fell kind of flat. I literally fell asleep trying to read this at least 4 times within the first 100 pages, and after that I could only tolerate reading a chapter or two at a time before my mind would start to wander.<br /><br />Basically, I was bored. The Jack the Ripper stuff wasn't as interesting as it should have been...but that was my mistake for having high expectations there, I didn't factor in that my familiarity with the case would snuff out any suspense there would be in that part of the story. But the fictional aspects of the case original to the book were a bit too predictable -- it's obvious from very early in the book who the bad guy is and who the red herrings are.<br /><br />And the mortuary stuff, that's something I was most excited to read about in this context but it was minimal (or at least it felt minimal).<br /><br />The romance was really bland too. I liked the characters enough as individuals, but I was indifferent to them together, there was no spark or build up, no tension or anything and anytime Thomas would say a supposed-to-be-flirty line, it felt off...like it didn't fit in the time period and the line would be more at home in a contemporary novel or something (which isn't a bad thing exactly, it's just that when I'm reading a historical romance, I want it to have that historical vibe to it).<br /><br />The book got better in the last quarter as far as pace went, although there were still little things that bugged me (the reveal felt kind of sloppy and cliche, the scene with the medium was annoying even if the character was inspired by a real life person -- maybe because I was looking forward to read a story rooted in science, where the protagonist is a forensic scientist... the hints at the paranormal didn't feel necessary).<br /><br />This review is coming across as pretty negative, but I actually didn't hate the book, I just had high expectations for it and it didn't come close to meeting them. It was an okay book and I can see why other people would love it, but it was just average to me. I'd rate it 3 stars out of 5. I would recommend checking it out if it sounds appealing to you, but it just wasn't the book for me.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/gJaUuZ5jGmo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/gJaUuZ5jGmo/stalking-jack-ripper-by-kerri-maniscalco.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/02/stalking-jack-ripper-by-kerri-maniscalco.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-8135898031164419503Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +00002017-01-12T00:00:30.310+00:00Night Shift by Debi Gliori<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482780142l/32574766.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482780142l/32574766.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Night Shift&nbsp;</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Debi Gliori&nbsp;</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Summary: </b>With stunning black and white illustration and deceptively simple text, author and illustrator Debi Gliori examines how depression affects one's whole outlook upon life, and shows that there can be an escape - it may not be easy to find, but it is there. Drawn from Debi's own experiences and with a moving testimony at the end of the book explaining how depression has affected her and how she continues to cope, Debi hopes that by sharing her own experience she can help others who suffer from depression, and to find that subtle shift that will show the way out.&nbsp;</div></blockquote>I don't read many picture books, but as soon as I read the summary for this one I knew it was one I had to read and I have zero regrets.<br /><br />For starters, the illustrations were absolutely stunning. Using dragons as the embodiment of depression was such a perfect choice. And I love that it was really minimal with the text -- it's so easy to fill page after page with thousands of words, trying to make sense of mental illness, trying to write it in a way that makes sense...but Debi manages to capture the feeling exactly right in just a few simple lines and I loved that.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yF09ZtSDnYk/WGRpfTtm6hI/AAAAAAAACh4/5C1FITdod3kTCUmZBBnZyynoz1_eoU2pQCLcB/s1600/IMG_2979.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yF09ZtSDnYk/WGRpfTtm6hI/AAAAAAAACh4/5C1FITdod3kTCUmZBBnZyynoz1_eoU2pQCLcB/s400/IMG_2979.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />It's such a sad and lovely and hopeful book and I can't think of much else to say about it except I highly recommend it -- if you want to understand depression or if you have depression and want to feel understood.<br /><br />I'd rate it 5 stars out of 5.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/c3uby-KeHL0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/c3uby-KeHL0/night-shift-by-debi-gliori.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2017/01/night-shift-by-debi-gliori.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-2275573160456574971Fri, 30 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +00002016-12-30T00:00:11.900+00:00Top Books of 2016 (& Diversity)This hasn't been a particularly good reading year for me. On one hand, I read more than 80 books, but on the other, I had many reading slumps, many DNF books (not included in my overall read count), and it just didn't <i>feel </i>like I read much this year. Maybe because there weren't many books out of the 80+ that wowed me.<br /><br />But yes...of the books I read this year, these were the favourites. I'm also going to include a sort of diversity count/check at the end, because one of my goals for next year is to consciously read more diversely and I'd like to look back at this post next year to see if I've improved on that.<br /><br />I'm going to break this down into categories...<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #ffd966;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454598349l/28220826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454598349l/28220826.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><b>Favourite Book of the Year:</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220826-when-the-moon-was-ours">When the Moon Was Ours</a></i> by Anna-Marie McLemore</b></div><br />This book was...wow. It's sitting on my all time favourites shelf right now, wedged between the likes of Melina Marchetta, Harry Potter and Code Name Verity. It's a beautiful story with beautiful characters and beautiful writing. I instantly bought the authors first book after finishing this one because if it's even half as good, it'll be amazing.<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #d5a6bd;"><b>The Standalone Books:</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444329591l/25679559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444329591l/25679559.jpg" width="133" /></a><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25679559-you-were-here">You Were Here</a></i> by Cori McCarthy</b></div><br />This one is a lovely little story about a girl dealing with the death of her older brother. One of the things that really made me love the book though was that two of the POV's were done using illustrations instead (one of them with graffiti/poetry, the other like a comic). It made it really memorable.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26721568-the-problem-with-forever">The Problem With Forever</a></i> by Jennifer L. Armentrout</b></div><br />Jennifer L. Armentrout is just really great at writing addictive stories and good characters. This one is about foster kids and one of the main characters is dealing with PTSD and anxiety and I really loved it.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1449491313l/25528801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1449491313l/25528801.jpg" width="132" /></a><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25528801-exit-pursued-by-a-bear">Exit, Pursued by a Bear</a></i> by E.K. Johnston</b></div><br />This is a book about a girl dealing with the aftermath of her rape. It deals with abortion in a really positive way and it has A+ female friendships and parents who are actually present and part of the story. It should be noted that it's a very idealised story that won't be true for all victims of rape -- the main character is believed and supported by almost everyone, and any negativity towards her is shot down really well...that's often not the reality. But it's the way it should be, and it's an important story.<br /><i><br /></i><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18081809-landline">Landline</a> </i>by Rainbow Rowell</b></div><br />This one is probably one of Rainbow's most underrated books. It subverts gender roles, it's cute and fun and just...dflvlsjfbvkj. I had so much love for this story and these characters. And I loved the little Cath/Levi cameo.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26177619-london-belongs-to-us">London Belongs to Us</a></i> by Sarra Manning</b></div><br />I was actually quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. London was practically a character <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453734324l/28693621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453734324l/28693621.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>itself. It has French boys on mopeds and wonderful drag queens and a bad ass female character who realises that she deserves so much more than the crappy way her ignorantly racist, stuck up twat of a boyfriend treated her and it's just...I love the characters and the story was so cute and fun.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28693621-chasing-the-stars">Chasing the Stars</a></i> by Malorie Blackman</b></div><br />This book wasn't perfect, but it left me desperately wanting a sequel and incredibly disappointed that there doesn't seem to be one in the works so it deserves a spot on the list for leaving me wanting more even months after finishing the book. It's an Othello retelling set in space, where Othello is a teenage girl.<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><b>The New Series:</b></div><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25950053-the-girl-from-everywhere"><br /></a></i></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447147722l/25950053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447147722l/25950053.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456410889l/29338023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456410889l/29338023.jpg" width="131" /></a><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25950053-the-girl-from-everywhere">The Girl from Everywhere</a></i> by Heidi Heilig</b>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20983362-passenger">Passenger</a></i> by Alexandra Bracken</b></div><br />These two are odd, because they have quite a similar premise. Teenage girls time travelling to save their mothers, both partially set on ships, but the execution was quite different for each.<br /><br />I enjoyed Passenger more while reading (it got 4 stars), but The Girl from Everywhere stuck with me more...it's one of those ones that got an average rating from me (3-3.5 stars) but I kept thinking about it and found myself desperate for the sequel.<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Companion Novels:</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1449318353l/28103790.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1449318353l/28103790.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1455989059l/28356624.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1455989059l/28356624.jpg" width="131" /></a><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614492-salt-to-the-sea">Salt to the Sea</a></i> by Ruta Sepetys</b></div><br />Salt to the Sea is a companion novel to Between Shades of Grey, but it can be read on it's own. It's about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff at the end of WW2, the worst ship sinking in history (nearly 9500 people died).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28356624-carry-on">Carry On </a></i>by Rainbow Rowell</b></div><br />It took me such a long time to get into this book, but by the time I finished it I loved it -- mainly because of Baz (both his character alone and his relationship with Simon).<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><b>The Memoirs:</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469410391l/29868610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469410391l/29868610.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460558453l/29429875.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460558453l/29429875.jpg" width="132" /></a><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29868610-scrappy-little-nobody">Scrappy Little Nobody</a></i> by Anna Kendrick&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429875-where-am-i-now">Where Am I Now</a></i> by Mara Wilson</b></div><br />I loved both of these. Anna and Mara are two wonderful human beings. Both of their books are honest and funny and feminist. Anna's has more focus on her adult life in the industry, while Mara's includes more detail about her childhood and what it was like to be a child star and dealing with the loss of her mother during that time and dealing with her own mental illness.<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #ffd966;"><b>Picture Books:</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482780142l/32574766.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482780142l/32574766.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32574766-night-shift">Night Shift</a></i> by Debi Gliori</b></div><br /><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481219756l/25855506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481219756l/25855506.jpg" width="162" /></a>This is one I was sent to review and it's beautiful. It's about depression and the illustrations portray depression as a dragon and it's just...it's sad and lovely and true. The book will be released in the UK on January 12th 2017.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25855506-adulthood-is-a-myth">Adulthood is a Myth</a></i> by Sarah Andersen</b></div><br />And this one...again, kind of deals with mental illness. It's mostly about what it's like to be an adult and having anxiety and it's funny and so easy to relate to and I loved it.<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>Plays:</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364864637l/17347724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364864637l/17347724.jpg" width="123" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17347724-peter-and-alice">Peter and Alice</a></i> by John Logan</b></div><br />I don't read many plays, but ones like this make me wish I did. It is such a beautifully written and heartbreaking story. It's about the real Peter and Alice, the children who inspired Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. The two actually met once when they were adults, and this play is a fictionalised imagining of how that meeting might have went down. It was just lovely, and it weaves a lot of true facts about their lives into it that I didn't know (I didn't realise how much tragedy both had in their lives, particularly Peter).<br /><br />Annnd that's all my favourites this year. What are your top books of 2016?<br /><br /><div style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><b>Diversity check:</b></div>Before I start, it should be noted that I<i> have</i> read other diverse books this year, it's just that not all of them made it onto my favourites list. And with this, some books will count towards more than one category:<br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Non-white MC: 6/16*</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>LGBTQIA+ MC: 4/16</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Neuro-diversity: 7/16*</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Jewish MC: 1/16</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Disabled MC: 0/16</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Own voices: 9/18** </b></div><br />Anyway... I can definitely improve on the diversity of my TBR next year. And I want to be able to include less general categories next year too (e.g. instead of simply "non-white" I want to break it down and be specific, and with LGBTQIA+ to break it down to specific identities, etc.).<br /><br />Later.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">*With these two, I've included two side characters (one who is a lesbian, one who has bipolar disorder), because while they're not the POV characters, the characters did play a huge role in the stories and those aspects of the characters are very much present on the page. They're exceptions, there are other books on the list with a diverse cast of side characters but I haven't counted those.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">**The count could be higher than I've put, because it's harder to know for sure with some things (i.e. not all LGBTQ+ authors who write LGBTQ+ characters are out, or if they are they're not always vocal about it online...same goes for authors who write about mental illness).</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/5J10g_rE-HY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/5J10g_rE-HY/top-books-of-2016-diversity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2016/12/top-books-of-2016-diversity.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991257220097563993.post-2558130056562796432Fri, 02 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +00002016-12-02T00:00:13.573+00:00Dream a Little Dream & Dream On by Kerstin Gier<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421615136l/21469090.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421615136l/21469090.jpg" width="193" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Dream a Little Dream</i></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>(&amp; <i>Dream On</i>)</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Kerstin Gier</b></div><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><b>Summary: </b>Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yes, Liv's dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially the one where she's in a graveyard at night, watching four boys conduct dark magic rituals.<br /><br />The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They're classmates from her new school in London, the school where she's starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But what's really scaring Liv is that the dream boys seem to know things about her in real life, things they couldn't possibly know--unless they actually are in her dreams? Luckily, Liv never could resist a good mystery, and all four of those boys are pretty cute....</div></blockquote>I'm reviewing the first two books in this trilogy together because I read them back to back, and because...well, I just don't have much to say about them.<br /><br />I liked both books a lot, but the first book is better. The second feels very much like a filler book -- there is a plot to it, but it's one of those ones where the actual plot is overshadowed so much by the characters and filler stuff to the point where it feels like nothing much happens. The first book had more of a balance.<br /><br />I really loved Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red trilogy and this series, while not quite as good, has a lot of the same elements that made me love that series. It's cute and fun, with a great cast of characters. I love the sibling relationships, I love that it shows step-families in a positive light instead of vilifying them the way a lot of stories do...the only thing that would make me enjoy it a lot more is to have more good female friendships, but I've seen reviews that promise the third book delivers on that.<br /><br />My main issue with the books, although it doesn't bother me that much, is that the main character seems to have way more chemistry with her soon-to-be step brother than her love interest, especially in the second book (which I don't think was intentional, it might even be something that came across differently when it was translated to English from German). I'm hoping so much that that changes in the final book.<br /><br />To sum up: these books are really fun, quick reads that make me laugh and smile, and I have high hopes for the third and final book which is releasing next year. Kerstin Gier is quickly becoming one of my go-to authors to snap me out of a reading slump (perhaps not a good thing seeing as I need to wait for her books to be translated from German before I get to read them).<br /><br />I'd rate the first book 4 stars out of 5, the second 3 stars.<br /><br />Later.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~4/JZHcvW5cAEM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggersheartBooks/~3/JZHcvW5cAEM/dream-little-dream-dream-on-by-kerstin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (lanna-lovely)0http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2016/12/dream-little-dream-dream-on-by-kerstin.html